I once had a job interview at Sasquatch Books, and though I didn't get the job (I think they were looking for someone younger and with more experience in book editing and publishing), I was tremendously impressed with their offices and their line of cookbooks and children's stories. Now that they are merging with PRH, I wonder if they will be adding different genres of books to their publishing roster? Heaven knows there are plenty of authors who live in or around the Seattle/Puget Sound area whom they could tap for locally sourced novels and non fiction.
Penguin Random House (PRH) Acquires
Sasquatch Books
Penguin Random
House has acquired Sasquatch Books, the Seattle, Wash.,
publisher that has
been a distribution client of Penguin Random House
Publisher Services
since 2012. Sasquatch will retain its editorial and
operational
independence, with no changes planned for its Seattle
location,
management or staff. In an unusual approach, Sasquatch will
report to PRHPS
president Jeff Abraham.
Founded in 1986,
Sasquatch Books http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz34402374
focuses on nature, travel,
gardening, lifestyle, children's publishing, food, and wine titles.
Bestsellers include The Encyclopedia of Country Living;
the Larry Gets
Lost series; The 52 Lists Project; A Boat, a Whale, & a
Walrus; and Dead
Feminists. Its children's imprint is Little Bigfoot.
Sasquatch's
mission is "to seek out and work with the most gifted
writers, chefs,
naturalists, artists, and thought leaders in the Pacific
Northwest and
bring their talents to a national audience."
Sarah Hanson,
president of Sasquatch Books, said, "For more than five
years we have
leveraged tremendous value from the PRHPS partnership and
the Penguin Random
House sales and supply-chain infrastructure. We have
always appreciated
their great respect for our publishing program and we
are thrilled to
continue our successful teamwork with our distributor
into this new
phase, where there will be even greater opportunities for
collaboration."
Abraham added:
"When it became known that the company was looking for
new ownership to
take Sasquatch to the next level, the prospect of PRHPS
acquiring the
company, while maintaining its independence in Seattle,
was enormously
appealing to both sides. We've accomplished so much with
the incredible
team at Sasquatch over the last few years. Now, our
expanded
commitment will allow for even more opportunities for growth."
Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson was recommended to me by a book website that tends to list books by genre and as the "10 best books of the Summer" or the "25 most underrated books of the year" and all the hyperbole that follows such headlines. Sometimes they're right on the money, and sometimes they're a waste of time, but this particular time, I found several books that sounded right up my alley, so I put them on hold at the library. Midnight at the Electric turned out to be a hidden gem, with a page-turner of a plot and lots of fascinating epistolary stories told via generations of women. Anderson's prose is poetic without being pedantic, and her plot never drags. Here is the blurb:
New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson's epic
tale—told through three unforgettable points of view—is a masterful
exploration of how love, determination, and hope can change a person's
fate.Kansas, 2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate.
Oklahoma, 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.
England, 1919: In the recovery following World War I, Lenore tries to come to terms with her grief for her brother, a fallen British soldier, and plans to sail to America. But can she make it that far?
While their stories span thousands of miles and multiple generations, Lenore, Catherine, and Adri’s fates are entwined in ways both heartbreaking and hopeful. In Jodi Lynn Anderson’s signature haunting, lyrical prose, human connections spark spellbindingly to life, and a bright light shines on the small but crucial moments that determine one’s fate.
You could say that human history features two types of people: those who stay and those who leave. Anderson's…moody, mesmerizing novel, an unusual hybrid of science fiction and historical fiction, is devoted to the restless souls who want to get the heck out…It's hard to forget Catherine's parched Dust Bowl farm, where even the morning toast and eggs are coated with grit, and fans of futuristic fiction will be drawn to Anderson's vision of flooded cities, space travel and inventions like the KitchenLite, used to print edible eggs and bacon.
I was drawn to Adri, the character who is the least like me as a person, as she's distant, closed off and, as she puts it, not a nice person, a loner by choice. Yet once she develops a relationship with 107 year old Lily, who is losing her memories to dementia, you can almost feel her heart start to expand. Once she begins reading Catherine and Lenore's letters, her world opens even more, and peeking into these intimate moments in history is like watching Downton Abbey, you know you will never actually meet people like this, but their stories and their lives are riveting nonetheless. The science fiction/historical fiction hybrid is surprisingly suspenseful and rich with detail. Anderson is obviously an accomplished writer. This novel deserves an A, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes generational stories and science fiction with heart.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly is the book that we're reading for October for the library book group that I lead. This novel has been made into a popular movie and many of my friends and fellow book lovers have already seen it, though I have not. I loved that the book was about a group of amazing, successful black women during the WWII years up through the 1970s and the space race era of the 60s who served as human computers for aeronautics and for rockets, but were given little or no recognition due to the racism and sexism of the time. To read stories of real women who battled both and came out on top is a rare treat. Here's the blurb:
Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program—and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now.
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as “Human Computers,” calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these “colored computers,” as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper to support America’s fledgling aeronautics industry, and helped write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
Drawing on the oral histories of scores of these “computers,” personal recollections, interviews with NASA executives and engineers, archival documents, correspondence, and reporting from the era, Hidden Figures recalls America’s greatest adventure and NASA’s groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five spunky, courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine.
Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of scientific achievement and technological innovation with the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world—and whose lives show how out of one of America’s most painful histories came one of its proudest moments.
The Last Chance Matinee by Mariah Stewart was a book that I won from Shelf Awareness and the author's giveaway section of their e-newsletter. Ms Stewart graciously sent me a copy of the book autographed, and with her personal author business card enclosed. This is a story about a trio of sisters who do not get along, yet they are thrown together when their father dies and two of the sisters discover that their father had another family that he never told them (or their mother) about on the other coast. Having actually known someone that this happened to, I was immediately riveted by the story arc, and interested as to how the characters were going to grow together, while renovating an old theater in the small town where their father grew up. The sisters are told that they won't get their substantial inheritance money unless they renovate and open this theater, on budget and on time. Here's the blurb:
From New York Times bestselling author Mariah Stewart comes the first novel in her all-new series, The Hudson Sisters, following a trio of reluctant sisters as they set out to fulfill their father’s dying wish. In the process, they find not only themselves, but the father they only thought they knew.
When celebrated and respected agent Fritz Hudson passes away, he leaves a trail of Hollywood glory in his wake—and two separate families who never knew the other existed. Allie and Des Hudson are products of Fritz’s first marriage to Honora, a beautiful but troubled starlet whose life ended in a tragic overdose. Meanwhile, Fritz was falling in love on the Delaware Bay with New Age hippie Susa Pratt—they had a daughter together, Cara, and while Fritz loved Susa with everything he had, he never quite managed to tell her or Cara about his West Coast family.
Now Fritz is gone, and the three sisters are brought together under strange circumstances: there’s a large inheritance to be had that could save Allie from her ever-deepening debt following a disastrous divorce, allow Des to open a rescue shelter for abused and wounded animals, and give Cara a fresh start after her husband left her for her best friend—but only if the sisters upend their lives and work together to restore an old, decrepit theater that was Fritz’s obsession growing up in his small hometown in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Guided by Fritz’s closest friend and longtime attorney, Pete Wheeler, the sisters come together—whether they like it or not—to turn their father’s dream into a reality, and might just come away with far more than they bargained for.
Library Journal: Allie and Des Hudson, raised in California and born to an alcoholic starlet, Honora, and her manager, Fritz, are summoned to their Uncle Pete's law office for the reading of Fritz's will after he dies suddenly. They're surprised when Cara, a half sister they never knew, shows up. Pete reveals Fritz's double life, and another surprise: all three daughters will not receive their inheritance unless they move to his hometown in rural Pennsylvania and restore the old theater where he spent his summers. Upon arrival, the women meet their Aunt Barney, yet another hidden relation Fritz never revealed, and they begin to learn a little more about their father and family. As they set to work repairing the theater, they begin to form a new family unit, although some are more willing than others. Barney lets them in on who their father was as a young man, but the mysteries around him keep growing. VERDICT This series opener by the author of the "Chesapeake Diaries" books is a bit disappointing, as almost nothing is resolved. That said, it's a good read, with a nice blend of mystery, family drama, and romance. Readers will look forward to the next installment.--Brooke Bolton
Though I know readers are supposed to identify with gentle yoga instructor Cara or animal-rescuer Des (everyone is supposed to dislike prickly helicopter parent and sneering snob Allie), I found myself liking Aunt Barney, who, though she's in her 60s or 70s, is lively, smart and fun, and well loved within the Hidden Falls community. She seems to be the only female character who has it together, and who isn't either looking for love, mourning a lost love or angry about love. The prose is sterling, and the characters well drawn enough to make readers care about them and their plights. The plot meanders and dawdles a bit, however, and reviewer Brooke Bolton is right in that nothing is resolved by the end of the book, so you're left at a very unsatisfying place, where renovations have hardly begun, and all of the sisters have revealed their weaknesses and have been neatly paired with a local guy who is frustratingly distant for one reason or another. Even our sour and bitter Allie has a fan in the local sheriff, who lost his entire family to a drunk driver and who recognizes that Allie has an alcohol problem, even when she refuses to admit it to herself or anyone else. Still, being a theater major and a fan of romantic story lines interwoven with family dramas, I enjoyed reading The Last Chance Matinee, and I'd give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes Gilmore Girls, Dynasty or Kristin Hannah's well told family sagas.
Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program—and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now.
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as “Human Computers,” calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these “colored computers,” as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper to support America’s fledgling aeronautics industry, and helped write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
Drawing on the oral histories of scores of these “computers,” personal recollections, interviews with NASA executives and engineers, archival documents, correspondence, and reporting from the era, Hidden Figures recalls America’s greatest adventure and NASA’s groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five spunky, courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine.
Moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of scientific achievement and technological innovation with the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world—and whose lives show how out of one of America’s most painful histories came one of its proudest moments.
…Margot Lee Shetterly does not play the austere historian in Hidden Figures. She is right there at the beginning with evocative memories of her childhood, visiting her father—an engineer turned climate scientist—at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia…Hidden Figures…is clearly fueled by pride and admiration, a tender account of genuine transcendence and camaraderie. The story warmly conveys the dignity and refinements of these women. They defied barriers for the privilege of offering their desperately needed technical abilities.What I loved most about this book, the stories of these incredibly hard-working women who balanced long work days with raising children and developing integrated community organizations, (like the Girl Scouts) was also what I liked least about the book, because Shetterly, as the NYTB notes above, adds in a lot of civil rights history and regular history/historical incidents that, while they inform the era, are not directly about these women's lives. I think most children who went through any decent school system from the 60s on had already read about the civil rights movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Brown VS the Board of Education. What I wanted more of, as a reader, was more insights into these women's lives. I wanted to hear about their struggles to raise children through inferior segregated schools, and then their push to get them into integrated schools and colleges, dealing with women's organizations of the time, dealing with husbands who expected them to do it all, and be it all, and getting around sexism and racism in the work place. The author certainly raised these issues and spoke about them, but it wasn't in depth enough for me. I wanted more. That said, there was certainly a great deal to think about when I finished reading the book, because I felt like a huge slacker in the face of all that these women accomplished under the stresses and prejudices of the time. A solid A book, with the recommendation for anyone who is interested in Aviation and Space history and the hidden history of black women in this country.
The Last Chance Matinee by Mariah Stewart was a book that I won from Shelf Awareness and the author's giveaway section of their e-newsletter. Ms Stewart graciously sent me a copy of the book autographed, and with her personal author business card enclosed. This is a story about a trio of sisters who do not get along, yet they are thrown together when their father dies and two of the sisters discover that their father had another family that he never told them (or their mother) about on the other coast. Having actually known someone that this happened to, I was immediately riveted by the story arc, and interested as to how the characters were going to grow together, while renovating an old theater in the small town where their father grew up. The sisters are told that they won't get their substantial inheritance money unless they renovate and open this theater, on budget and on time. Here's the blurb:
From New York Times bestselling author Mariah Stewart comes the first novel in her all-new series, The Hudson Sisters, following a trio of reluctant sisters as they set out to fulfill their father’s dying wish. In the process, they find not only themselves, but the father they only thought they knew.
When celebrated and respected agent Fritz Hudson passes away, he leaves a trail of Hollywood glory in his wake—and two separate families who never knew the other existed. Allie and Des Hudson are products of Fritz’s first marriage to Honora, a beautiful but troubled starlet whose life ended in a tragic overdose. Meanwhile, Fritz was falling in love on the Delaware Bay with New Age hippie Susa Pratt—they had a daughter together, Cara, and while Fritz loved Susa with everything he had, he never quite managed to tell her or Cara about his West Coast family.
Now Fritz is gone, and the three sisters are brought together under strange circumstances: there’s a large inheritance to be had that could save Allie from her ever-deepening debt following a disastrous divorce, allow Des to open a rescue shelter for abused and wounded animals, and give Cara a fresh start after her husband left her for her best friend—but only if the sisters upend their lives and work together to restore an old, decrepit theater that was Fritz’s obsession growing up in his small hometown in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Guided by Fritz’s closest friend and longtime attorney, Pete Wheeler, the sisters come together—whether they like it or not—to turn their father’s dream into a reality, and might just come away with far more than they bargained for.
Library Journal: Allie and Des Hudson, raised in California and born to an alcoholic starlet, Honora, and her manager, Fritz, are summoned to their Uncle Pete's law office for the reading of Fritz's will after he dies suddenly. They're surprised when Cara, a half sister they never knew, shows up. Pete reveals Fritz's double life, and another surprise: all three daughters will not receive their inheritance unless they move to his hometown in rural Pennsylvania and restore the old theater where he spent his summers. Upon arrival, the women meet their Aunt Barney, yet another hidden relation Fritz never revealed, and they begin to learn a little more about their father and family. As they set to work repairing the theater, they begin to form a new family unit, although some are more willing than others. Barney lets them in on who their father was as a young man, but the mysteries around him keep growing. VERDICT This series opener by the author of the "Chesapeake Diaries" books is a bit disappointing, as almost nothing is resolved. That said, it's a good read, with a nice blend of mystery, family drama, and romance. Readers will look forward to the next installment.--Brooke Bolton
Though I know readers are supposed to identify with gentle yoga instructor Cara or animal-rescuer Des (everyone is supposed to dislike prickly helicopter parent and sneering snob Allie), I found myself liking Aunt Barney, who, though she's in her 60s or 70s, is lively, smart and fun, and well loved within the Hidden Falls community. She seems to be the only female character who has it together, and who isn't either looking for love, mourning a lost love or angry about love. The prose is sterling, and the characters well drawn enough to make readers care about them and their plights. The plot meanders and dawdles a bit, however, and reviewer Brooke Bolton is right in that nothing is resolved by the end of the book, so you're left at a very unsatisfying place, where renovations have hardly begun, and all of the sisters have revealed their weaknesses and have been neatly paired with a local guy who is frustratingly distant for one reason or another. Even our sour and bitter Allie has a fan in the local sheriff, who lost his entire family to a drunk driver and who recognizes that Allie has an alcohol problem, even when she refuses to admit it to herself or anyone else. Still, being a theater major and a fan of romantic story lines interwoven with family dramas, I enjoyed reading The Last Chance Matinee, and I'd give it a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes Gilmore Girls, Dynasty or Kristin Hannah's well told family sagas.
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